Sarah Lacy

Latest from Sarah Lacy

London-based investing hotshot Index Ventures has just announced a new early-stage €350 million venture fund. To hear partner Bernard Dalle tell it, raising the fund was a breeze, with all existing limited partners re-upping their investments. He further said that good startups in London are having no problems raising venture capital and deal flow was just as strong. Really? Well, I guess… Read More

When I was a kid one of my favorite parts of Disney World was Tomorrowland’s Carousel of Progress. It was steeped in 1950’s futurism: Why, of course! Every family will have their own electric paint mixer in the future! And I only wish I’d been old enough to see this gem before it was torn down and replaced with a souvenir stand: The Monsanto House of the Future, a house… Read More

It wasn’t too many months ago that saying online advertising would decline in 2009 was enough to get you laughed at in the blogosphere, mocked on Twitter, and have Eric Schmidt roll his eyes and explain, again, why Google ads were such a better value than traditional media.
Flash forward to this week and the Interactive Advertising Bureau big wigs are predicting whole businesses dependent… Read More

The other day I asked somewhat tongue-in-cheek whether Tom Friedman had ever visited Silicon Valley. Today, I’m wondering if Lady Greenfield has ever used a social networking site.
The professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College, Oxford and the director of the Royal Institution has the United Kingdom up in a tizzy about the idea that Facebook, Bebo and Twitter are warping… Read More

Thomas Friedman is a very smart man and a very good writer. He’s certainly sold more books than I ever will. But in reading his latest column arguing $20 billion in bailout money should go to VCs not auto companies, one thing was crystal clear: This man doesn’t live in Silicon Valley. Has he even ever visited?
I totally agree we shouldn’t be bailing out “loser”… Read More

In case you didn’t read him quoted in some 1,700 newspapers last week, NBC’s Press:Here has an interview with Chris Kelly, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer this week. The show, which focuses on technology, airs in the Bay Area on Sunday mornings after Meet the Press, and the young show has already been beating Meet the Press in the ratings. You can also watch a clip on the… Read More

I started my career as a finance reporter covering wonky subjects like banks, bonds and agribusiness. I ended up in Silicon Valley covering tech, because it was the late 1990s, and I was doing what finance reporters are supposed to do: Follow the money. I’ve since realized if you want to cover startups well, it’s more complicated than that: You have to distill between the pioneer… Read More

Venture capital has long been heralded as an apprentice-style business where success only comes with ten years of experience and a gut that can predict the future. That was fine when it was a clubby industry making modest bets on companies within a 30 minute drive of Sand Hill Road. But as more money has flooded into the industry and tech has matured, finding the big home runs has become… Read More

Google may be having its share of recessionary stumbles, but compared to most of techdom it’s still smooth sailing over in Mountain View. And apparently that’s enough to make everyone want to sue. Three potential legal threats are looming in the news today around Google: One deemed a non-issue, another that should be deemed a non-issue, and one a very serious and troubling… Read More

Liberty Media threw Sirius XM a lifeline with an 11th hour $530 million loan. If Sirius’s beleaguered balance sheet didn’t tell you everything you’d need to know about how the negotiations went, the terms would. The initial loan of $280 million comes at a steep 15% interest rate, and Liberty will get 40% of the satellite radio company in the end. Liberty Media will also get… Read More

It’s tempting to blame the downturn for all the bad news hitting tech in 2009, but downturns have a healthy impact too. They burn away the brush of businesses that looked good enough on paper to keep raising money, but never quite worked in reality. Consider two stories in the news today: The possible bankruptcy of Sirius XM Radio in the next 24 hours and the looming ouster of its… Read More